"Enforcement of Strict Measures in Enclosed, Crowded Call Centers: Jeong Eun-kyung's COVID-19 Warning Remains Relevant After Six Months"

On the 5th, the Shinhan Life Insurance and Shinhan Card Cheonan Call Centers were closed due to a large number of COVID-19 confirmed cases.<이미지:Yonhap News>

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] On the 5th, a cluster infection at a call center of an insurance company in Cheonan, Chungnam, re-emerged with 19 new confirmed cases of COVID-19. Due to the nature of their work, call centers are considered workplaces where droplets (saliva) are frequently generated and many people work together in confined spaces, making it easy for COVID-19 to spread. This background also influenced the stricter quarantine rules implemented after the Seoul Guro-gu call center case in March, which was the largest cluster infection in the metropolitan area at the time.

The Guro-gu call center cluster infection resulted in 170 infections among employees at the workplace and their family members and acquaintances who were in contact after infection. Jung Eun-kyung, head of the Central Disease Control Headquarters, and quarantine authorities analyzed this case in detail and published a paper in a journal issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After the paper was released in April, Director Jung said, "We wanted to inform that enclosed and densely populated working environments or indoor environments pose a risk for COVID-19 transmission."

At that time, there was no clear evidence on how COVID-19 spreads or the infectiousness during the asymptomatic period, so quarantine authorities worldwide, including Korea, struggled to respond. Since then, quarantine rules reflecting the characteristics of the field, such as installing partitions in call centers, wearing masks, and staggering work hours, have been established. Nevertheless, more than 20 call centers across the country, mainly in the metropolitan area, experienced large and small cluster infections.

The AXA General Insurance Jongno Call Center, which was closed following a COVID-19 cluster infection in June./Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

As COVID-19 spread and face-to-face contact decreased, the workload of call center workers reached a serious level. Since many call centers operate through outsourced subcontractors, employment is inevitably unstable, and issues such as low wages and performance competition remain unaddressed.

Remote work, which many public institutions and private companies have implemented, is difficult to apply in call center workplaces due to practical limitations. Since March, the government has supported call centers by providing funds to equip partitions, thermometers, and other quarantine supplies, but the support over six months amounted to only 220 million won (for 176 locations). This means each call center received about 1.25 million won in support.

To prevent large-scale virus spread within call centers, quarantine authorities issued rules reflecting the characteristics of the workplaces. In addition to general rules such as checking employee symptoms, mask-wearing, ventilation, and disinfection, the guidelines include call center-specific measures such as fixed seating, use of non-voice consultation methods, and prohibition of cheering slogans. The government plans to inspect whether quarantine rules are properly followed in call centers this month. It has not yet been confirmed whether the call center in Cheonan, where the cluster infection occurred, adhered well to these quarantine rules or if there were shortcomings. Quarantine authorities will determine the extent of workplace transmission and compliance with quarantine rules through epidemiological investigations.

The Korea Building in Sindorim-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul, where a COVID-19 cluster infection occurred last March at a call center / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.